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Daily Digest: The Evolutionary Tracks of the Left and Right

Netroots Nation and RightOnline both drew to a close in Austin this weekend. And it's looking a lot like the left's netroots has made the leap from fish swimming in the sea to four-legged creature skittering around on the beach. The right, meanwhile, is still sprouting nubs and dragging its wet self onto the sand. NN, at least, gave the appearance of being an industry meet-and-greet, while RO was focused on teaching and training its online front line. We've got your recap of both events here in the Digest. In brief, Bob Barr turned up at both, Al Gore made a surprise showing at one, and much BBQ was eaten all around. Let's start with Netroots Nation, with a look at both big news and smaller happenings:

Future Majority's Kevin Bondelliblogs out a session with the Obama camp's Chris Hughes and Judith Freeman on how MyBO, Facebook, and MySpace help move them closer to the goal of getting their guy into office. While MyBO and Facebook may get a lot of attention, the ugly duckling that is MySpace helps them reach and activate young voters. Reports Colin Delany, one advantage of MyBO is how it quickly establishes presences in parts of the country with no official Obama footprint.

David All reports on RedState's Erick Erickson RO presentation in which he threw about a ton of red meat to the crowd, called on them to quit standing on the sidelines and get engaged locally -- filing FOIA requests, raising red flags, and calling out their local sheriffs, for example. Erick's speech raises the question over whether RightOnline was a more grassroots and locally-minded event than NN.

The right's equivalent to Netroots Nation is closer to CPAC (the annual Conservative Political Action Conference) than it is RightOnline, says Robert Bluey in his "Reflections on Right Online." Robert emphasizes that the conservative conference in Austin was focused on training, not powwowing. (Now, we use the gloss "conservative" to describe RightOnline, but is libertarian closer to the truth?)